Writing Strategies
RAFT InteractiveRAFT
RAFT is a writing strategy that helps you understand your role as a writer, the audience you will address, the varied formats for writing, and the topic you will be writing about. By using this strategy, you can write creatively, consider a topic from a different perspective, and gain practice writing for different audiences.



R ole of the Writer: Who or what are you as the writer? A pilgrim? A soldier? The President?

A udience: To whom are you writing? A friend? Your teacher? Readers of a newspaper?

F ormat: In what format are you writing? A letter? A poem? A speech?

T opic and strong verb: What are you writing about? Why? What's the subject or the point?


What to Do
–…assume a Role
–…consider the
Audience,
–…write in a particular Format
–…examine a
Topic from a relevant perspective

Example

RAFTs for Language Arts

Role

Audience

Format

Topic

Huck Finn

Jim

Letter

What I Learned on the Trip

Billy Colman

Family

Eulogy

My Love for Little Ann and Old Dan

Comma

Sentences

Thank You Note

Glad I Could Be of Service

Prepositional Phrase

Author

Persuasive Speech

How I Can Help You Express Yourself

Juliet

Self

Diary

My Short Romance

Grendl

Beowulf

Letter

You Need to See My Side of the Story


Example

Role

Audience

Format

Topic

Squanto

Other Native Americans

Pictographs

I can help the inept settlers

Band Member

Other Band Members

Demo Tape

Here’s how it goes

Positive Numbers

Negative Numbers

Dating Ad

Opposites Attract

Rational Numbers

Irrational Numbers

Song

Must you go on forever?

Decimals

Fractions

Poem

Don’t you get my point?

Perimeter

Area

Diary Entry

How your shape affects me

Monet

Van Gogh

Letter

I wish you’d shed more light on the subject!

Joan of Arc

Self

Soliloquy

To recant, or not to recant; that is the question

Tree

Urban Sprawl

Editorial

My life is worth saving

Thoreau

Public of his day

Letter to the Editor

Why I moved to the pond

Young Chromosome

Experienced Chromosome

Children’s Book

What becomes of us in mitosis?